With the EU actively engaging in a number of activities and events to help Europe to Re-Industralise (http://www.reineu2016.eu/), there is an urgent need to help European adults to catch up with competences and skills in a number of new technologies that are now readily available. Also of relevance is the fact it is well known that Europe is at the early stages of the 4th Industrial Revolution (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2015/568337/EPRS_BRI(2015)568337_EN.pdf) which aims at exploiting digital technologies for improved productivity and growth levels. For this Industry 4.0 to be effectively implemented, there is a need that current adult employees and thus also current trainers be upgraded with skills on relevant technology. One such technology on which Industry 4.0 greatly depends is 3D-Printing and hence why this project for adult training in this technology. The range of possibilities which 3D printing provides is almost limitless. However, one area where 3D printing has yet to make a difference despite the potential of fulfilling many needs is within the educational systems. Adult Education providers are ideal places to incorporate 3D printing as part of the curriculum. The project’s main objective is to address the need of European industry for workforce with 3D printing skills by developing specialized training tools that would improve in a new, innovative manner the skills of adult learners, which boost the chances of obtaining jobs or better paid jobs and, also, significantly enlarge the horizon of job seeking. The project target groups are Adult Learners and Adult Trainers/ The following Intellectual Products will be developed: 1. Guidelines on the use of 3DP In Adult Education 2. 3DP Case Studies for Adult Education 3. Curriculum of a 3DP Course for Adult Training 4. 3DP Course Content for Adult Training 5. 3DP trainer guidelines 6. 3DP e-Learning System for Adult Training Both course and LMS will be available in 5 languages: English, Czech, Romanian, Lithuanian and Croatian. There are 5 partners in the project: Evropska rozvojova agentura, s.r.o. (Czech Republic), Ludor Engineering (Romania), Social Innovation Fund (Lithuania), Macdac Engineering Consultancy Bureau Ltd (Malta) and Strojarska tehnička škola Fausta Vrančića (Croatia). We expect that the 3D-HELP project will provide significant beneficial impacts for Adult Education providers and for all people interested in developing their 3D printing skills.
The 3D-Help project was being developed between 2017 and 2019 mainly to help adult trainers and learners to catch up with rapidly growing EU market with digital technologies and 3D printing especially, which is connected to the fact that Europe is currently at the early stages of the 4th Industrial Revolution. For this Industry 4.0 to be effectively implemented, there is a need that current adult employees and thus also current trainers are upgraded with skills on relevant technology. One such technology on which Industry 4.0 greatly depends is 3D-Printing and hence why this project for adult training in this technology. The project target groups were EU adult trainers as these will be able to exploit the 3D-HELP training toolbox to help adult learners acquire Skills on 3D-P technology, adult learners that need a second chance of catching up 3D-P technology and stakeholders related to the Adult Education sector including policy makers and managers that can influence the direction of adult training. All these groups were involved in the activities during the project implementation such as Multiplier events in each partner country, pilot testing, they received newsletters and leaflets about the projects or were reached through the social media of the project. There were 5 partners in the project: Evropska rozvojova agentura, s.r.o. (lead partner, Czech Republic), Ludor Engineering (Romania), Social Innovation Fund (Lithuania), Macdac Engineering Consultancy Bureau Ltd (Malta) and Strojarska tehnička škola Fausta Vrančića (Croatia). Altogether, more than 260 people participated directly in project activities, such as Multiplier events, pilot testing or third party activities, where the project was also disseminated and more than 2 500 people received information about the project in the form of newsletters, leaflets, websites, Facebook posts, etc. 6 Intellectual Outputs were developed during the project implementation: 1. Guidelines on the use of 3DP In Adult Education 2. 3DP Case Studies for Adult Education 3. Curriculum of a 3DP Course for Adult Training 4. 3DP Course Content for Adult Training 5. 3DP trainer guidelines 6. 3DP e-Learning System for Adult Training Both course content and e-learning system is available in 5 languages: English, Czech, Romanian, Lithuanian and Croatian. All the project Intellectual Outputs are available online and for free at the project website: http://3dhelp.euda.eu, the e-learning system is available at http://www.mecb.com.mt/moodle/course/index.php?categoryid=23. All the tools are still available even after the completion of the project and the lead partner stays in touch mainly with the partner organization from Malta and Lithuania, who developed the e-learning system mostly in order to help new participants with their questions about the project or the e-learning system itself. The project helped the participants to catch up with 3D printing skills, increased their motivation in this field and provided new innovative tools that can be helping adult trainers and learners also in future.